Abandon Ship Car! Abandon Ship Car!
This image from an old postcard has lately turned up, and more than the other "Motor Car Mysteries", leaves me scratching my head. The first description that comes to mind is simply: "precarious". Whatever prompted this unweildy arrangement certainly was out of the ordinary. The only reason that I can fathom that would have led SP to risk #7 above the fathoms was that there was an urgent need to supply a weather-isolated portion of an Oregon coastal branch with local transportation. Whatever the case, the car made it back to terra firma, as it was laid aside in 1920 along with a good number of its 55' McKeen mateys. -EO
5-2019 UPDATE: The mystery is solved to the tune of a 9,000 word (+-) illustrated article, due whenever we can get to finishing it. Motor #7 was headed to Coos Bay, as it turns out, and the details leading up to its arrival, as well as its career there, are fascinating and well explains the foibles of operating Mckeens. Stay tuned!
